TRANSGENDER Matthew Attonley lived as a woman for a decade before embarking on
gender reassignment surgery worth £10k on the NHS.
But less than two years after he began the physical transition from a man to a
woman Matthew changed his mind — and now wants to become a man again.
Sex ops reached a record high last year, with the NHS carrying out 172 —
nearly double the 83 of a decade earlier — costing taxpayers at least
£2million.
Matthew, 31, reckons gender reassignment surgeries are offered too readily by
the NHS, without adequate psychological evaluation.
He wants to warn other young people to think very seriously about the mental
and physical consequences before proceeding.
Matthew — who used to live as Chelsea — says: “I thought the surgery would
change everything for the better but it was not like that in reality.
“It was only cosmetic — it doesn’t change your psychology.
“I’ve always longed to be a woman but no amount of surgery can give me an
actual female body and I feel like I’m living a lie.”
Matthew, from Somercotes, Derbys, lived for eight years as Chelsea before
deciding to have gender reassignment surgery in 2012.
He had changed his name by deed-poll and already paid £5k to have a boob job
in Thailand, taking his chest to a FF-cup. He then had gender altering
treatment on the NHS, involving hormone implants, taking pills and blockers.
He says: “Gender altering treatment shrinks the penis and testicles down to
the size of a baby’s. It’s basically chemical castration.
“It is given to prepare the genitals for full gender reassignment surgery —
when everything is removed.”
But after having the gender altering treatment, and just weeks before he
was due to have a penis inversion, he changed his mind.
Matthew says: “I realised I’d made a terrible mistake.”
Unemployed Matthew, who describes himself as having “gender dysmorphia” felt
trapped in the wrong body from a young age — just
like ten-year-old Kai Windsor, as revealed in The Sun last week.
By the time Matthew was 21 he was dressing as a woman.
He said: “I thought having a woman’s body was what I wanted so I asked for
gender reassignment surgery and got it funded on the NHS. I had hormones,
the full gender altering surgery and was due to have the penis inversion
when I decided to stop.
“The hormones gave me mood instability, depression and anxiety. It’s so much
to deal with and all the cosmetic changes on top of that.
“Plus, no matter how much make-up I wore or how I dressed, I knew people
wouldn’t see me as a real woman.
“It was draining constantly thinking about how to walk and speak like a girl.
I was fighting a losing battle. It was making me miserable. I had to go back
to living as Matthew.”
He has been living as a man again for the past nine months. Matthew now hopes
to have a full chest reconstruction and surgery reversal on the NHS. He is
in discussions with doctors but appreciates his manhood will never be back
to how it was before.
He says: “I was so desperate to be a woman that nothing else mattered apart
from the surgeries.
“Now I want to have full chest reconstruction surgery on the NHS. I am
considering having penis reconstruction too. I strap my boobs down with
bandages. They make me so self-conscious.
“If people criticise me for wanting treatment on the NHS, it doesn’t bother
me. I know I need these changes to make me happy and no one should deny me
that.”
Matthew insists that even though he wants his body to be that of a man’s again
he will always be a woman on the inside.
He believes the NHS needs to rethink how gender reassignment surgery
eligibility is assessed.
He says: “People are braver and there is more tolerance now. It’s getting
easier to turn up and pass well in front of a psychiatrist.
“You should be deeply, psychologically evaluated over a number of weeks and
research should be carried out into your family and also your medical
history.
“If you’re not psychologically ready, no cosmetic procedure or surgery will
make you happy.
“I don’t think you get enough information before going through with it.”
Additional reporting: JOCELYN COOK
Issue is complex
SUN Doctor Carol Cooper says: “Gender dysphoria (or gender identity
disorder) means being unable to identify with the gender you were born in.
“Now that it’s spoken about more openly there seem to be many more people with
the disorder.
“The NHS has rushed to cater for the increased demand and that has helped many
people.
“But gender is a very complicated issue and the surgery is irreversible.
“Some people think and behave differently from the norm. That can’t always be
fixed with hormone treatment and surgery.”
Clinics can help
NHS gender identity clinics offer transgender health services but people will
usually need to be referred by their GP.
GP referrals for gender dysphoria treatments are usually followed by an
assessment by a psychiatrist or another specialist doctor before treatment
begins.